San Bernardino County, CA, Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
THOMAS L. McFARLANE,
one of the oldest and most expert miners on the Pacific coast, was born in
Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in January, 1840. Meeting with financial reverses
by which he lost his property, Mr. McFarlane's father moved with his family to
Iowa when Thomas was four years of age. He died in that State some twelve years
ago. In 1859 Mr. McFarlane drove six yoke of oxen across the plains for a
company who were freighting for the United States Government from Fort
Leavenworth to Salt Lake. The train was composed of thirty wagons and thirty‑six
men, and the company received an average of fifty cents per pound for
transportation. On reaching Salt Lake, Mr. McFarlane and seven comrades bought a
team and came through to California that fall, reaching Placerville late in
September. The same autumn he came down to Kern County, where he had two
brothers engaged in farming, and joining them he pursued the same vocation for
two years. In the fall of 1861 he came to San Bernardino County and spent the
winter in Holcomb valley. This was the season of the great flood, and the low
lands of the San Bernardino valley were entirely inundated, forming a continuous
lake of water many miles in extent. In the spring of 1862 Mr. McFarlane returned
to the Kern river country and went into the mines, where he and his three
comrades took out $1,600 apiece in six weeks. In 1863 and 1864, he and his
brothers built what is known as the McFarlane
toll road, which extended from the Kern river to the Tulare valley, a distance
of about forty miles of mountain road. They kept the road until 1870, when a
lack of travel, owing to a change of outlet by way of Los Angeles to the
seaboard, they were compelled to surrender their charter and lost their
investment. In February, 1870, he and his brother started for Ivenpagh, their
total capital being $450. After reaching their destination and prospecting until
they were about worn out and disheartened, the subject of this sketch
accidentally ran on to an uncovered ledge of rich silver ore, and hence was the
first discoverer of that now famous mine from which several million of dollars
have since been taken. He and his brother incorporated as the Ivenpagh Mining
Company, which was afterward reincorporated as the Ivenpagh Consolidated Mining
Company: this firm has taken out nearly two million dollars. Mr. McFarlane still
owns valuable mining property there. His brother, A. J. McFarlane, was the
discoverer of the Long Tom gold mine in Kern County, which has been very
productive. There were four of them interested in it, and after working it
profitably for a time they sold it for $20,000. In 1876 Mr. McFarlane started
into the livery business in San Bernardino. He has also tried merchandising and
dealing in real estate, but his chief success has been in mining.
In 1878 he married Miss Seely, daughter of David Seely, one of the early
pioneers of San Bernardino valley, and they have resided in the city ever since.
Their homestead comprises nearly an acre of land on Sixth street between L and D
streets. They have two children, a son and a daughter.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower
California� Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 504
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler